Honestly, Simon, I don't know where you are getting these ideas. Taking ukemi is not the same thing as handling an attack.

You are mistaken. I would add it takes supreme confidence to take ukemi for someone you believe intent on doing you harm.

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In this situation, if Dan wanted to try to handle the man's attack, he would have asked the man to do just that, attack him. The he would have tried to handle it by doing an Aikido technique.

He had already handled the attack. Before contact was made.

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You are Dan's approach, OTOH, acknowledged that he couldn't safely throw the TKD man in a confrontational situation. That is to say that he admitted that he couldn't handle the man's attack, and by doing so, released much of the tension that had built up. This is, obviously, not the same thing as "handling his attack."

Umm I am not quite sure what you mean. Presumable you think Dan Could not handle the Other guy safely in a physical confrontation, Why? after all Dan refused to say the other guy was better.

Whos safety do you think Dan was worried about?

He took a verbal attack and deescalated it.

Seems to me that he handled the attack very well. Do you generally escalate verbal attacks into physical ones? Do you consider this "handling attacks" well? Does your boss/customers/priest/lawyer agree?

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What are you talking about? If you mean Dennis Hooker, he hasn't even posted on this thread, much less provided a "counterexample"